Croatia or Serbia route on Eurovelo 6

[midliferider]

I am planning to cycle from Budapest to Belgrade along the Danube in what is commonly known as stage 4 of the Eurovelo 6. Once you leave Hungary, the route gives you two options. You can either go through the Croatian side (west bank) or Serbian side.

Do you have any views on which side is better?
Any other general views on this route is greatly appreciated.

 

[vernon]

I am planning to cycle from Budapest to Belgrade along the Danube in what is commonly known as stage 4 of the Eurovelo 6. Once you leave Hungary, the route gives you two options. You can either go through the Croatian side (west bank) or Serbian side.

Do you have any views on which side is better?
Any other general views on this route is greatly appreciated.

I'm not sure that you'll come across many folk that has cycled both sides. I cycled on the Croatian side until Ilok. There's a distinct lack of campsites in Croatia and Serbia. You'll come across villages that still bear extensive scars of the Balkan conflict. Vukovar has the unenviable distinction of being the first European city since WWII to have been flattened by war. Belgrade is seriously underwhelming - most of its museums and galleries are closed. I found two that were open, the Tesla Museum dedicated to Nikolai Tesla and the Military Museum at the Citadel. Belgrade also has scars from the Balkan conflict.

The folk along the route were very hospitable but there's an air of resignation to their relatively impoverished lives - average wage is 300 euros per month. I spent many an hour chatting to locals and I gained a much better insight into the politics and history of the Balkans through being there than by taking new broadcasts at face value. The Serbs seemed to be more miserable than the Croatians. Be prepared for high temperatures. Much of my ride was in temperatures of 36+ degrees.

I caught a sleeper train back to Budapest and booked a double compartment as a single. It was relatively cheap. Be prepared to give the train guard a 20euro backhander thinly disguised as a bicycle ticket. The ticket office wouldn't sell a bike ticket telling me that I had to buy it off the guard.

 

[midliferider]

Thanks Vernon. That is very helpful.
Looking at the maps, it looks like there are more things to see in Croatian side than Serbian side.
But it looks certainly more hillier than Serb side. That was my only bit of worry. I know it is very personal but how did you find them?

 

[vernon]

Thanks Vernon. That is very helpful.
Looking at the maps, it looks like there are more things to see in Croatian side than Serbian side.
But it looks certainly more hillier than Serb side. That was my only bit of worry. I know it is very personal but how did you find them?

There's certainly more minefields to see on the Croatian side than the Serbian side.

There's no hills of note to be honest. I have no recollections of struggling anywhere.

 

[Blue Hills]

Be prepared to give the train guard a 20euro backhander thinly disguised as a bicycle ticket. The ticket office wouldn't sell a bike ticket telling me that I had to buy it off the guard.

Was this serbia or croatia? Any other examples of corruption?

 

[BalkanExpress]

Agree with Vernon, I would go with the Croatian side, good vineyards in Baranja, the nature reserve at Kopacki Rit, Osijek has an interesting fortress, Vukovar is fascinating, depressing and uplifting in equal measure, Ilok is pretty and the White wine is good.

Yes there are some hills, mainly between Vukovar and Ilok but nothing too extreme.

Yes, you need to be careful about landmines in some areas, keep away from abandoned buildings and uncultivated land, and I would not wild camp. More info here http://www.hcr.hr/en/minSituac.asp

Once into Serbia, Novi Sad is a fun city with a great fortress, and unlike Vernon I love Belgrade: but then I did live there so that makes a difference. Red star football club have an interesting museum

Corruption? Well, if you want to buy an oil company I may be able to help. More seriously as a foreign traveller you will not experience many/any problems

 

[vernon]

Agree with Vernon, I would go with the Croatian side, good vineyards in Baranja, the nature reserve at Kopacki Rit, Osijek has an interesting fortress, Vukovar is fascinating, depressing and uplifting in equal measure, Ilok is pretty and the White wine is good.

A great technician in a cycle shop in Osijek retensioned the spokes in my rear wheel and trued it then went on to adjust my headstock bearings. He refused to accept payment for the service as he claimed that dealing with my bike - Rohloff hub and belt drive was a useful educational exercise. He hadn't seen them before.

I spent several hours in a bar just outside Vukovar and the barman shared his hopes and fears along with contempraranious images of the impact of the war on Vukovar. Like you said the place was fascinating, uplifting and depressing with things like the water tower, ruined homes and shell damaged industrial images reminding me that the reconstructed and vibrant city has a troubled past.

I stayed at the Hotel Donau at Ilok and enjoyed my stay so much I stayed for a second night. The staff and family who own it were fantastic and I let the attentive chief barman/waiter guide me through the wines spirits and local delicacies for a day and a half. It was worth every penny of the £120 total bill for the stay.

Belgrade was underwhelming on the cultural front and has a surprising lack of international trains. I was disappointed that so many of the museums and galleries were closed during peak tourist season. The tourist/restaurant/shopping epicentre was fine with some bargain priced Serbian food on offer but Serbian restaurants were outnumbered by pizza/burger establishments. The highlights for me was the Tesla Museum at the end of the road from my hostel and the military museum up at the citadel along with the large park containing the citadel.

I had no problems as such. I didn't regard paying the guard over the odds for my bike ticket as a problem though the train ticket purchasing procedure at the station could have been lifted from a Monte Python sketch.

 

[Blue Hills]

. I didn't regard paying the guard over the odds for my bike ticket as a problem

Nice interesting post vernon. Thanks. But doesn't such a blatant enforced fiddle over something as piddly as a bike ticket hint at worse daily corruption problems? Maybe not for tourists but for the locals?

 

[vernon]

Nice interesting post vernon. Thanks. But doesn't such a blatant enforced fiddle over something as piddly as a bike ticket hint at worse daily corruption problems? Maybe not for tourists but for the locals?

The locals don't earn enough money to be taken advantage of.

 

[Bodhbh]

Agree with Vernon, I would go with the Croatian side, good vineyards in Baranja, the nature reserve at Kopacki Rit, Osijek has an interesting fortress, Vukovar is fascinating, depressing and uplifting in equal measure, Ilok is pretty and the White wine is good.

Yes there are some hills, mainly between Vukovar and Ilok but nothing too extreme.

Yes, you need to be careful about landmines in some areas, keep away from abandoned buildings and uncultivated land, and I would not wild camp. More info here http://www.hcr.hr/en/minSituac.asp

Once into Serbia, Novi Sad is a fun city with a great fortress, and unlike Vernon I love Belgrade: but then I did live there so that makes a difference.

+1 for most of this, I did the route in 2011 and already seem to have forgotten alot about it. Also like Vernon said campsites seem to dry up once you leave Hungary. I'm not even sure I camped at all afterwards. From memory I paid 12-25 quid for a room in the sticks, in the cities I stopped in hostels and it was obviously cheaper.

The further you go along the route the more strays you get. This reaches a peak in Romania, but definately gets noticable in Serbia. They tend to be more docile than domestic dogs, but I did wonder they'd be an issue wild camping.

Can't help you about which side to go - I decided to go the Croat side and don't have any reason to regret it.

Regarding the bribe for getting a bike on the train - it happened later in the trip while getting the train to Bucarest. It was 30quid, so not small change. Another conductor started walking down the train after I was asked for it, and the first guy promptly stood up and walked off with no more being said. To be fair, that was the only issue I had. A couple of weeks later I got outragously short changed back in the UK so it puts it in perspective.

 

[midliferider]

Thanks for all your replies. I have decided to take the Croatian route. One of the reason is that it is more easier to find accommodation in Croatian side. I like to book my accommodation before I set off. I do not feel comfortable to camp on my own.
Then I found another interesting reason to go on the west bank of Danube. have a look at this post.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...claiming-to-be-the-worlds-newest-country.html

www.liberland.org

 

[dimrub]

Has there been any more info on this subject, since 8 years ago, anyone?

 

[midliferider]

Has there been any more info on this subject, since 8 years ago, anyone?

I did it in that summer.
I flew to Budapest. I chose the Croatian side. Crossed the border and got to Belgrade.
I cycle on my own, I stay in B and B, they are relatively cheap.
Wonderful scenery, very nice people in all 3 countries. Lots of memories.
Will highly recommend.
Please let me know if you would like any further information.

 

[dimrub]

I did it in that summer.
I flew to Budapest. I chose the Croatian side. Crossed the border and got to Belgrade.
I cycle on my own, I stay in B and B, they are relatively cheap.
Wonderful scenery, very nice people in all 3 countries. Lots of memories.
Will highly recommend.
Please let me know if you would like any further information.

Well, mostly I was interested in help in figuring out which bank to take, from Mohacs to Backa Palanka. The accommodation options seem slightly more plentiful on the Serbian side, on the other hand, I have a recent feedback from someone who just did this route on the Serbian side, that it was "dry, hot and frankly, not very interesting".

 

[midliferider]

Well, mostly I was interested in help in figuring out which bank to take, from Mohacs to Backa Palanka. The accommodation options seem slightly more plentiful on the Serbian side, on the other hand, I have a recent feedback from someone who just did this route on the Serbian side, that it was "dry, hot and frankly, not very interesting".

As I said, I did the Croatian side. Perhaps it depends on when you do it as well. August will be extremely hot. My Google photos tell me that I crossed the border to Croatia on 12th July 2015 at 11.06.
Even then it was very hot.
But I wanted to see the Fish Soup festival in Baja.
It was just an open market place where everyone enjoys fish soup.
Anyway food was lovely. I like fish anyway. So I had fish cooked in various different ways almost every day.